Game preview: Tuttle at Newcastle
Blake Woodard, Newcastle senior quarterback
NEWCASTLE — I’ll be at tonight’s Tuttle-Newcastle game, and I can’t wait.
The Racers’ and Tigers’ annual battle is one of the top rivalries in the Oklahoma City area, and it’s also a game I’m familiar with.
Before I came to work for The Oklahoman, I covered high school football for a season at the Newcastle Pacer. I came to know the passion that the tri-city area has for its high school sports, and the passion that Newcastle and Tuttle residents have for this rivalry.
A couple years ago, I wrote a series of blogs about the rivalry. I talked to several former players, including Jason White, who starred at Tuttle before going on to win the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma.
“It’s a lot like, on a different scale, OU-Texas,” White said. “Both Tuttle and Newcastle are really good teams, so there’s a lot at stake. There’s also the bragging rights factor; if you lose to Newcastle, you have to listen to it for a whole year before you get a chance to redeem yourself.”
Tuttle hasn’t had to listen to Newcastle talk about football for quite some time. The Tigers have won the past seven meetings, but this year the Racers have confidence that the streak can be broken.
“Tuttle has had our number for quite some time, but I think this year is the year that we can beat them,” Blake Woodard, the Racers’ senior quarterback, said before the season.
For its part, Tuttle is quite confident, too.
“It’s just something you want to win so you can have the bragging rights for the rest of the year,” senior running back D.J. Boles said. “Every year of my high school career, we’ve won. I don’t know what it’s like to lose to them, and I don’t want to know.”
Boles rushed for three touchdowns in the Tigers’ 46-0, Week 1 win over Cache, and Woodard and the Racers snuck by Pauls Valley 14-13.
PREDICTION TIME
This was a tough game to pick for me, because I could see it going either way. But in the end, I think Tuttle makes it eight in a row. Tuttle 24, Newcastle 14
jkersey@opubco.com
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